Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 7

OVERVIEW

Testing Digital Advances
By Kevin C.
Bushweller

Technology and policy developments prompt a rethinking of assessment

iguring out how to use digital
tools to transform testing can
be a bumpy ride. It requires
a willingness to invest in new technologies and the patience to experiment with novel approaches, a commitment to ongoing professional
development and reliable technical
support, and an openness to learn
from mistakes, making quick adjustments in response.
Whatever bumpy ride this technological journey takes, experts insist that online assessments-for
both high-stakes tests and classroom exams-are the undeniable
wave of the future. They see online
tests, and adaptive ones in particular, as a key tool for building
personalized learning programs
that address students' individual
strengths and weaknesses.
And with only about a year to go
before students in most states are
scheduled to take new, online assessments aligned to the Common
Core State Standards, districts are
still taking stock of whether the
technology they have on hand will
meet their needs. Many schools are
now seeing, late in the game, that
the gap between what they have
and what they need is troubling.
What may be worse, others remain in a "this too shall pass"
state of mind, said Thomas Ryan,
the chief executive officer of the
eLearn Institute, a nonprofit
based in Wyomissing, Pa., that
works to transform education
through the use of digital learning
tools. "The thinking being, 'Maybe
we can play this slow and miss
this one,' " he told Education Week.

feedback on what students know
and understand. Some districts are
already taking significant steps to
experiment with how technology
can improve such an assessment
approach.
Having a stronger technology
backbone in place could also set
the stage for wider use of assistive
technologies. Once seen as primarily for students with disabilities,

those technologies are now merging into the broader testing world,
especially as more states and
districts embrace online testing.
Computer-based exams provide an
opportunity to allow all students to
tap into accommodations that could
aid comprehension and focus.
At the same time, many educators are learning important lessons about using digital games and

simulations that feature embedded
assessments. The rich multimedia
content and interactive experiences
in games and simulations provide
an opportunity for deeper insights
into the nuances and complexities of
how students solve problems.
Even so, some experts advise
schools to stay focused on integrating technology into assessments in thoughtful ways that

have an impact on learning.
"We all want to avoid the gee-whiz
factor," Eva L. Baker, the director of
the National Center for Research on
Evaluation, Standards, & Student
Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles told Education
Week. "We have to make sure there
is adequate evidence these things
work and are not simply the next
big thing." n

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Bandwidth Needs
A recent report by the State
Educational Technology Directors Association, in Glen Burnie,
Md., suggests that concerns about
schools' technological readiness for
common-core testing are justified. It
found that 72 percent of schools do
not meet the basic Internet-bandwidth requirements of 100 kilobits
per second per student set by the association-essentially the minimum
of what's required for a schoolwide
1-to-1 computing environment.
Further, a 2013 survey by the
Consortium for School Networking, based in Washington, and Market Data Retrieval, an education
market-research firm in Shelton,
Conn., found that only 57 percent of
elementary schools and 64 percent
of secondary schools had wireless
capability.
That lack of preparation for the
common-core online tests could be
a major missed opportunity for
many schools, experts point out,
because the digital upgrades put
in place for the common core could
fuel the use of technology to transform testing in other ways.
One of the potentially most powerful tools is in-class formative assessments that provide real-time

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Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

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